Following a pair of disappointing losses to Cody at home on Tuesday, the Powell Pioneers bounced back on Thursday on the road in Sheridan — walking away with a pair of victories, 5-3 and 9-7, over the Jets.

Starting games faster was the message heading into Thursday, and the Pioneers (23-18-1 overall, 3-3 A Northwest) did just that against the Jets (14-16 overall, 4-2 A Northeast).

The Pioneers kicked off the first inning with a run when Aidan Wantulok drove in Cade Queen, who had reached base earlier in the inning on an error.

That lead was extended in the second when Brock Johnson hit a single to center field, scoring Cole Fauskee, who reached earlier in the inning on a single.

Powell continued its strong early play, extending the lead even further in the third inning.

Wantulok drove in Queen on a single;  Queen reached base after being hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.

Aiden Greenwald brought in Trey Stenerson on a groundout after Stenerson reached second on a double earlier in the inning — extending the lead out to 4-0.

With run support behind him, Jhett Schwahn continued to keep the Jets at bay while on the mound until the fourth inning.

“I felt like we threw the ball well, and we hit when we needed to hit,” Pioneers Manager Jason Borders said.

Sheridan scored one run in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 4-1.

After neither team scored in the fifth, the Pioneers added an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning.

Nathan Feller grounded out, scoring Greenwald who led off the inning with a double.

Sheridan made a run at it, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the sixth to make the score 5-3 heading into the final inning.

The Jets had an opportunity to win it after loading the bases in the seventh with nobody out.

But Queen came in as a pitcher, striking out one and getting two additional outs to seal the game with a 5-3 victory on the road.

Wantulok led the way at the plate, finishing 2-4 with two RBIs.

Hoping to continue the trend heading into the second game, the Pioneers again jumped to an early lead.

Johnson started for Powell, reaching first base on a single and stealing second and advancing to third during Schwahn’s at bat.

Queen drove in Johnson on a ground out to kick off the scoring at 1-0.

Powell extended its lead in the third inning when a Stenerson ground out brought in Johnson, who led off the inning with a single.

Sheridan got back in the game in the third inning, scoring three runs on a triple, an error and stealing home to take the lead 3-2.

But the Pioneers bounced back in the fourth inning.

Powell nearly had the bases loaded with no outs but Worstell was thrown out going home, leaving the Pioneers with runners at the corners and one out.

Ethan Welch brought in Keaton Rowton on a sacrifice bunt. Rowton reached first earlier in the inning on a single, and advanced to third.

Johnson brought in another run on a single, but was called out advancing to second, giving Powell a 4-3 lead.

The lead grew in the fifth, when a walk to Rowton with the bases loaded brought in a run to make it 5-3.

An offensive explosion in the sixth helped Powell to extend the lead even further.

Welch was hit by a pitch and Johnson hit a single to start off the inning strong and Schwahn drove in Welch on an error to make it 6-3.

Johnson then scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-3, Queen advanced on a walk and Stenerson hit a single to keep baserunners going for the Pioneers with no outs.

Stenerson hit a single and then Wantulok brought in  Queen and Stenerson to make it 9-3.

Sheridan scored one, cutting it to 9-4 heading into the seventh.

The Jets nearly completed the comeback, scoring three in the bottom half of the inning after loading the bases, but a ground out to Johnson ended the game to give Powell a 9-7 victory.

“The three that he gave up were weird off the bat that were hard to handle by our infielders,” Borders said. “We played pretty good baseball, we had little errors, then we hit and pitched well.”

Seven Pioneers drove in a run, and Johnson finished 4-5 at the plate to lead the way for Powell.

FINAL HOME GAMES

There will be one more opportunity to see the Pioneers in action in Powell this season.

The Pioneers host Billings UpperDeck on Tuesday (today) in a doubleheader with the first pitch set for 5 p.m. and the second game scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.

“I do not know much about this UpperDeck team,” Borders said. “We just want to keep playing the way we are playing, and we have to keep building that momentum towards districts.”

The district tournament is just around the corner, with the Pioneers heading to Green River in two weeks with a chance to head to the state tournament in Cody at the end of July on the line.